How to Get a Pink Color Using Watercolors

Creating pink with watercolor is a matter of knowing how to paint with water.

The trick to painting with watercolors is knowing how to use water. Think of a bowl of water for dying Easter eggs. If you only put in a couple of drops of food coloring, the color on the eggs will not be as saturated as it would be if you poured in the entire bottle of food coloring. The same is true of watercolors for painting, except now you're working with water on paint brush and paper as opposed to in a container.

Things You'll Need

• Watercolor paints
• Water
• Water cup
• Watercolor paper
• Palette
• Paint brush
• Paper towels

Instructions

1. 

   Having an extra water cup ready works well in case the first cup gets muddy.

   Set up your space. Painting with watercolors can be a very unpredictable process so you should have all your materials within easy reach. If you are using watercolor cakes (these are the kind that come in solid pans), open them up. If you are using a tube of paint, squeeze a little bit of paint (about the size of a pea) on your palette.

2. 

   Laying down water first can help create effects like this when painting.

   Lay down a wash of water without pigment by brushing the page with a very wet paintbrush. If you're working with a large space, you may want to use a wider brush. When you are brushing the water onto the page the water might pool; this is not a bad thing. You may want to try this with different amounts of water, seeing how the paint dries differently on each surface.

3. 

   Less paint and more water is best for lighter colors.

   Put a little bit of red paint on a very wet brush. The brush should be fully loaded with water and does not need much pigment. When you are making pink, too little pigment is better than too much, especially if you're using paint out of a tube; these more expensive paints have much more pigment than cakes of paint.

4. 

   Painting with watercolors takes practice.

   Apply the brush to the paper. Do this quickly after laying down the initial wash when the page is still wet. If what you get is still too red, dip your brush lightly in your water cup, dab it lightly on a paper towel and try applying again. The more water you add in this way, the less red pigment there will be, getting you closer to lighter shades of pink.

5. Change your shade of pink, making it warmer or brighter, by adding touches of violet, orange or magenta. Before applying an additional hue combined with red to the paper, test it on your palette, adding more water if necessary.

Tips & Warnings

• Less is more when it comes to using watercolor paints or pigments to create pastel colors such as pink.

References

• Pantone: What Are the Color Characteristics?
• "The Watercolor Book"; David Dewey; 2000